More User Reviews:

First sip is quite refreshing and begs you to take another. It shows fruit juicy flavors and has an interesting resemblance to a chardonnay based champagne. I'm not sure but the jasmine seems a little out of place here and the mouthfeel is a little thin.

Finishes semi-dry and crisp.

Overall, very drinkable but falls a little short.A shame, a lot of potential here. No troubles finishing it though, give it a try. (543 characters)

Picked this one up recently as I've had every Avery anniversary beer since Ten. This one pours into my glass a hazy sunrise pale yellow color with an inch of fizzy white head on top with taught bubbles. Aromas start with crisp malts and wheat accents along with a spicy kick. Peaches, banana and honey are there mixing in with a floral undertone. Earthy, fruity yeast in the background.

First sip brings a spicy sweet malt body upfront mixing in with fruity flavors of peach and banana. Floral accents mix in with some syrupy honey. Big estery yeast flavors that are somewhat earthy as it flows down. Finishes somewhat dry with lingering fruit and spice flavors.

Mouthfeel is a little on the heavy side for a saison in my opinion. Carbonation is good, but overall is not as refreshing as I normally like a saison to be, with a syrupy palate midway through each sip. Belgian golden ale would be a better description than saison. (930 characters)

Bomber bottle, brewed in May 2009. Pours cloudy and lemon hued, Near white head and then fine strands of lace on the glass. Flowery, fruity and pepper in the nose. Pretty solid saison, pepper, fruit, Belgian yeasties...quite dry in the finish. Nothing stunning...but a respectable take on the style...so from Avery, known for their bold brews, this one has to be considered a dissappointment (391 characters)

Pours a hazy yellow-gold with a fizzy white head that dissipates quickly. Good lacing. Floral sweet aroma, kind of melon more than citrus. Candy-sugar and yeast sweetness, honey and some spice. Taste was better than the nose, but similar. Good yeast ester sweetness, some wheat/grain, but not enough to make it metallic. Coriander and jasmine are present, and some white pepper from the hops, just not a lot. Hoppier than anticipated, with the hops (I'm assuming) occasionally giving off a smoky flavor in the finish. Dry finish. Very easy to drink. (549 characters)

1 pint, 6 oz bottle, bottled on May 2009. Late 19th-Early 20th century picture of fancy dressed ladies on the label, nice humorous sidenote about being sixteen.

Pours a cloudy golden color with about a half finger white head from a fairly steady but not gentle pour. Some carbonation streams but no lacing. Head is non existant.

Smells like a belgian ale, some yeast going on, with an interesting sour peach note like festina peche from DFH.

Tastes like a mixed bag. There is a sweetness in the middle, very tart but smooth, followed by some herbal spices, maybe even a clove, at the end. Yeast is present in the beginning to give it distinctive belgian characteristics. Alcohol is apparent for the first few sips but dies down later on, a little warming going down.

A little on the heavy side of medium bodied. This isn't a refreshing chugger like a good saison should be. Finishes dry, carbonation is apparent.

Nice beer to drink, although I think it may have past it's prime, being a year and two months now. Good, nonetheless, but a little heavy and too much of a sipper for the style. (1,094 characters)

Poured into a stemless wineglass clear yellow with a white head that disappated quickly. Minimal lacing. Smell is light with some spice notes. Taste is odd for a saison. The bitterness is rather high, with some definate wild yeast taste. The end of the palatte could be a little dryer, as a saison should be. But this one isn't. The mouthfeel is high in carbonation, but overall smooth. I'm rather perplexed by this saison, as I would almost consider it a strong lager as opposed to a Saison. (492 characters)

Translucent peachy yellow body looks similar to witbier. Abundant eggshell white head is dense and retentive, but leaves very little lace. Peachy, honeyed aroma also has notes of lemon, flowers and dry old book paper. It comes as no surprise that this tastes like peaches as well. It has just a little bit of mustiness to it, a very mild tartness and some peppery spice. I find that this finishes fairly dry, but not bone dry. The honey is definately there too. Though it's fine at a cooler tempertature, it's becomes cloying as it warms.

Even with it's ample carbonation giving it some lift, it's medium body still carries a bit of a sticky mouthfeel. I would have enjoyed this much more if were more attenuated. (715 characters)

Pours a cloudy yellow/orange with a giant white frothy head. This has a ton of carbonation and a lot of yeast "chunks". The smell is nice with lemon,wheat,grass,bread yeast,and horse blanket. The taste is crisp with citrus hops,lemon,wheat,alcohol,and bread yeast. A nice flavorful taste . The m/f is light for a higher alcohol brew,but the flavors mix well. This is a damn good summer brew.Don't miss out. (406 characters)

Served chilled, it pours into a globe with very hazy pale yellow color and thick, long-lasting white head.

Aroma is sweet and funky with a definate saison quality to it. Peaches might come through a little here but just in the background.

Flavor is surprisingly bitter considering the ingredients listed on the label (peaches and honey, etc.) and it's certainly hoppy for a saison. Sweetness up front leads to a bitter sour punch in the middle and finishes really quite dry. The peaches are somewhere towards the back but not a dominant characteristic of the beer. It reminds me of a Belgian IPA with lots of hops and a strong funk/sour flavor.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with heavy carbonation. Drinkability is limited and I would recommend sharing the bomber with a friend or two. (785 characters)

Pours a huge, fluffy, bone-white three-fingers head, but it shrinks down to a third that size fairly quickly. Gobs of lace patches left on the glass, and the color is a lightly hazed sunny yellow.

Aroma definitely has the saison/farmhouse characteristics of yeasty funk, bright fruit and peppery spice, but the added ingredient each make themselves known; there an equal spread of jasmine, peach and honey in the nose, so they pretty much hit their target square in the nose.

Flavor is also well-balanced between your more traditional saison/farmhouse characteristics and the added bonuses. Sweet succulent fruit (peach, pear, green apple); white pepper; flowery (jasmine, definitely); candy-like sweetness (the honey); earthy yeast. All present and accounted for. Alcohol edges in fairly aggressively, something held back in the aroma, giving the fruit extra potency on the tongue. Light and crisp hops provide a pretty good snap along with all the other flavors here. Nice, although more yeast presence would have been great, or maybe just a funkier yeast strain, as this drinks more like a higher alcohol fruit beer than a more delicate, complex Belgian. And it's really the alcohol that, over time, tends to annoy ever so slightly. But it's not even that that keeps me from being totally wowed by this--there's just something lacking amidst all that flavor. Is it bad? Hell no. It's quite good enough.

Feels fantastic, being airy yet creamy, carbonated yet soft...just about perfect in this department, and very much "nailed" in terms of authentic saison-esque/Belgian-esque texture.

It's held up very well for being 15 months in the bottle, and surely the alcohol level helped keep it alive, crisp and sharp. But, it's also my least favorite aspect of this beer. Not Avery's best, anniversary or otherwise, but a cool and different take on the style, one I'm glad to have tried. (1,948 characters)

S--Jasmine and some other floral tones. Definitely some fruit...maybe peaches? Honey, particularly clover. Something vegetal and funky on the back.

T--Really interesting layers of flavor here. Honey and fruit on the entry, followed by a grassy midpalate, and a lovely clean finish (typical of Avery, in my experience).

M--Really nice. Weighty and slightly creamy.

D--I could easily handle this one as a session, despite the slightly high ABV. I think it's a very nice, very drinkable effort that can only improve with time. I'm gonna pick up one or two more for the cellar.

Slighly blurry golden straw colored with streams of carbonation feeding a dwindling white cap. It eventually lingers as a collar and leaves moderate lacing.The nose is mostly wheat cracker dryness, with yeast driven allspice, clove, and pepper. Some underlying fruitness arrives, in vague kiwi, honeydew, and orange rind tones, and equally vague florality. It's hits the mouth predominantly wheaty. Had I tasted it blind, my first guess would have been witbier. The yeast adds a bit of pepper, and a substrata of chalky, leathery dryness. Fruitiness picks up later and lower than expected, and carries only traces of melon and lemon zest. Honey shows up in a paradoxically drying way, then mingles with a low-level floral bitterness.Charged-up and gassy right away, the body settles out over time, leaving a medium bodied, flaccid, but fairly drinkable glass of beer. I wanted quite a bit more out of this. There is nothing concretely bad here, but nothing that specifically says "Saison" either, as the listed ingredients fail to show through the curtain of wheaty dullness. (1,079 characters)

A decent saison, a serviceable saison. A style I like. Pours light body with lots of bubbly foam. Pleasant aromas, fruity and a bit of yeast. Above average mouthfeel,honeyish, a somewhat pleasant spiciness and bitterness. Most drinkable. A tad complex. (252 characters)

Had on tap at Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood last night; reviewed from notes. Served in a tulip glass.

Slightly hazy (though nearly clear), very pale golden-yellow/maize liquid with a small off-white head which recedes fairly quickly to a thin collar. Decent lacing, but no legs.

Benign aromatics, with notes of malt liquor, rock candy, and grassy fields. Faint spice emerges as the beer warms. Not much going on though really.

Alcohol is very forward, dominating the palate. Malty sweetness develops next with hints of blueberry, orange peel, with cumin, and pepper-corn in the finish. Sweet, boozey, and spicy - though the flavors are ill-defined and unbalanced overall. Slightly bitter, though hops are hard to detect. Yeast is likewise hidden.

Medium-bodied with prickly carbonation, but hot from the spice and especially from the alcohol (ABV tastes much higher than it is) with a numbing sensation on the tongue.

Drinkability is hindered somewhat based on certain aspects noted above. Not hard to finish a glass, but I didn't want another.

Even among domestic Saisons, there are far better expressions of this style available. (1,141 characters)

If one judged only by color, and some do, this straw colored beer with its popping, loose knit, and totally white head would knock some fizzy beer drinker on their butt. It cracks me up when color is used as a gauge for beer's strength or level of flavor. This beer looks light and the head lacks retention.

Avery's most often used Belgian yeast strain is distinctive and usually dominates the nose with light bubble gum, clove, and other phenols. It grants some small funk as well, but there is nothing over the top. The peaches and jasmine may be at work too.

The funk picks up. A little barnyard and light stone fruit. Jasmine seems to be around, though I wouldn't be able to say; 'yes, that is jasmine' if the bottle didn't tell us it was an ingredient. So, I will say 'some herb or spice is imparting a light, slightly fruity, floral flavor'. Pils malt coupled with the honey give moderate dryness.

Light and effervescent. Delicate dryness and fizz.

I've drunk this first glass quickly. Nothing is overpowering in what seems to be a well crafted Saison with no problems and no dominating ingredient. The adjuncts hardly make themselves known. (1,183 characters)

I had this beer fresh when it was released and I thought it might do well with some age on it. I was not wrong. The maltiness, Belgian yeast esters, spiciness and alcohol have all subsided a little. And although the other flavors may have become toned-down a bit as well, it now appears much more focused and balanced than I remember it. If it was bottled in May of 2009, then it's just about 2 years old now...

It still looks the same, except that my first pour was much clearer as the yeast had sedimented.

The aroma displays only a minimal amount of malt and yeast within a fruity combination of peach, apple, and tangerine. Don't get me wrong, it's not brightly fruity, those notes are mixed within the malt, but it's not nearly what it was initially, and they appear a little more readily within the mix.

The same is true of the flavor. There's a bit of light tang at the front, followed by some chalky yeastiness and a bit of rising spiciness that arcs over peach, honey and floral notes going into the finish. It's just so much smoother and more balanced and rounded than it had been young. A hint of vanilla, and a clear note of peach linger in the finish.

Pleasantly surprising - I wish I'd aged more than one bottle of this one! (1,242 characters)

Avery Sixteen pours a light straw color. It's hazy and definitely looks bright yellow with light behind it. A soft, white head crowns the top. It's about a finger and a half deep, and recedes to a surface covering quickly. Lacing was very, very light.

The nose is alright. It's primarily yeasty. It smells like Belgian yeast, but it's not a thunderous Belgian yeast presence. It's very earthy and grainy throughout. I'm definitely getting musk, but not necessarily funk. I'm not sure whether Brett is here not. Doesn't smell like it. There are some light fruit notes. The label indicates peach is here. I get a little of that, but I'm getting more lemon. Alcohol isn't noticeable at all.

The flavor is good. It's definitely earthy and grainy, for starters. It has a nice musky flavor going on, but I'm still not getting any funk. My guess is...no Brett. Not necessarily a bad thing. It is a little yeasty. It tastes Belgian to me, but it's not a very strong flavor in the mix. It's a little fruity. I'm picking up lemon, but not much peach. Go figure. Honey certainly makes an appearance. I didn't catch that in the nose, but it's definitely here. Alcohol is blended well and is lost in the shuffle. It finishes dry and musky. Perhaps the best news is that it isn't vegetal at all.

Sixteen has a medium body. Carbonation is light, and it is smooth. Goes down nice and easy. Drinkability is above average. The flavor's good, but it isn't among my favorite Saisons. It goes down easy enough, and isn't too scary in terms of abv. Nonetheless, a bomber is enough.

Avery generally does a really impressive job with these anniversary releases. This one's definitely pretty impressive, but doesn't quite live up to some of the other releases. All in all, I like it. I think I'd like it more with a stronger Belgian yeast flavor and perhaps a spicy edge. As it is, it's a solid Saison, but needs something extra to really challenge the best Saisons. Honey is interesting and tasty, but isn't enough to propel it to the top. Nonetheless, it's definitely worth checking out. (2,068 characters)